ATOMIC KITTEN - "The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling) 6

If I was still in high school, and I loved a boy, and it was June, a week before the school year ended, I would cruise the mall looking for hotness, singing along to this.

AVRIL LAVIGNE - "Sk8er Boi" 4

Fame as melodrama, something really not new, but never as banal as this.

BIG BROVAZ - "Nu Flow"

New flow sounds like old flow.

BUSTED - "Thats What I Go To School For" 5

A teenage boys jack off fantasy that sounds more authentic then mtv might allow.

CHRISTINA AGUILERA - "Dirrty" 6

The song is supposed to be the new fuck me I’m legal Christina, and does have some potential, but it still seem to have an element of little girl playing grown up. I don’t think she’s ever had sex, only heard of it from r a b and Madonna.

COLDPLAY - "In My Place" 8

Mopey Anglo to the core but his voice sends little shivers up my spine.
A safe morissey for housewives, but better.

ELVIS vs JXL - "A Little Less Conversation" 9

It took a Dutchman to make Elvis more then warhol multiples, secanol and shitting himself to death on the toilet, wouldn’t have worked with one of the famous ones, and the extra noise doesn’t really matter, cause its all about the molasses thick Memphis drawl, come back dark prince, we love you again.

EMINEM - "Without Me" 5

It doesn’t feel like social criticism any more but another small dicked wonder waving it around, trying to prove his own power. Repetitive and stupid, which is a shame because the boy used to be clever and new.

EVE feat. ALICIA KEYS - "Gangsta Lovin" 6

What we have here is two genuine vocal talents outclassed by the shimmery Phil Spector in Harlem production

FISCHERSPOONER - "Emerge" 10

Like kraftwerk made as plesurebots,
There is nothing human here and it is warmer and more erotic then Dirrty, cyborg culture is warm for your loving.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE - "Like I Love You" 5

For some one who has been condemned and discounted in the media, it is strange how much this white boy sings and dances like whacko jacko- all the way down to the grunts and the falsetto, purely by the numbers.


KELLY OSBOURNE - "Papa Don't Preach" 6

Hard Rock Cover of Madonna when she was making great pop songs, rather then just deconstructing them.
Savage Parody of the media culture she has found her self emerged, and a voice that is so over produced that you cannot tell whether it sucks or rules, all standards are out the window and all that matters is that I am singing this out loud.

KHIA - "My Neck My Back" 4

A paean to the glory of analingus. This needed to come sooner.

LAS KETCHUP - "The Ketchup Song" 3

The dance that goes with this is too complicated, and cannot be done in baseball stadiums; it will not break in America. This pleases me.

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - "Losing My Edge"
MADONNA - "Die Another Day"

Sir Reg may have bitched about the lack of Bassey, but really its not about Bond but about Madge, the body keeping closed, the skittering beats, and the volumes of material found in the silences, she doesn’t want Siggy to analyse this, she wants the press to stop, her voice is getting better- burnished, maybe it’s the studio production, quoting eccleisaties, talking about sin, growing up, the cut apart violins, it sounds like a manifesto for pop success, it sounds like a new strategy, it sounds like she if refuting what made her famous, it sounds fantastic.

MISS DYNAMITE - "It Takes More" 5

A primer on sexual ethics envolped in a proper genre works out.

NELLY - "Hot In Herre" 8

A good pop single made better by encouraging frat boys to take it off.

NELLY AND KELLY - "Dilemma" 7

Kelly has a better voice then Beyonce and more intimate phrasing, something missing in this age of bombast.
This is in fact a rather understated and subtle love song, lovely in its own way.

NIRVANA - "You know you’re right"

Been a bootleg for ten years, grafting metal and pop doesn’t seem new, but it makes me remember with fondness, how much I miss the old verse chorus verse, loud soft loud, and that glorious growl, Cobain was a great stylist, a v. good vocalist, we forget that.


PINK - "Just Like A Pill"

The love as drug metaphor is dead and the bridge that leads to the chorus is dull.
Pill/ill is a lazy rhyme. No sing along potential.

PUDDLE OF MUDD - "She Hates Me" 4

I want my teenage pathos with more anger.
It’s like Ween, but I know Ween is kidding, but I know these guys are serious.
Relationships with the shelf life of yoghurt don’t need a song.

S CLUB JUNIORS - "Automatic High" 0

The Paedo pop of Aaron Carter and lil' bow wow but English.

SCOOTER - "Ramp! (The Logical Song)"

Fags should not be allowed to make dance music, it becomes both throbbing and cute, like a teddy bear with a raging hard on


SUGABABES - "Round Round" 5

I should hate this, and I don’t. I am not sure why.

THE CLIPSE - "Grindin" 4

I have never gotten over my discomfort with the phrase nigger and bitches, and strippers anthems are never really interesting, but he does he get points for honesty.

THE VINES - "Get Free"

All I know is that this is the perfect music to pogo to on a Friday night and grind to on a Saturday morning. and baby that’s all I want.

THE CORAL - "Dreaming Of You"

All of those happy memories, 50s calypso, 60s cali pop, 70s singer songwriter, Cyndi Lauper, Stephin Merritts boy as he walks down the street. Catchy.

TIM MCGRAW - "Red Rag-Top" 10+10

Small and acoustic, and sad, in the country way about common tragedies that reverberates,
This one makes me cry because it makes no judgements; the political message is missing,
The narrative tells the story, exhausting.

TRUTH HURTS - "Addictive" 9

Qawalli, hand claps, undulating female voices, pop exoticism but folded in, is the hip hop rapping and the sugar daddy anthem, its an odd fusion of the spiritual and the intensely cynical.

VANESSA CARLTON - "A Thousand Miles" 8

Sounds like leafless trees and stark walks through neighbourhoods and sort of that pseudo dyke punk that was popular for five minutes 6 years ago. Good.




Pop Focus Group, didnt mention the hip hop this one b/c i dont get it-also less i truly loved. (cf the streets)